Green Bay Packers have 3 Coaching Openings to Fill
By Paul Bretl
As we discussed just a week ago, in addition to there being quite a bit of potential roster turnover for this Green Bay Packers team, there was also going to be a lot of turnover among the coaching staff–particularly the offensive side of the ball.
In case you’ve missed anything, here is everything that has taken place so far for the Green Bay Packers:
– Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett took the head coaching job with the Denver Broncos.
– Quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy is now the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, where he will be calling plays.
– Tight ends coach Justin Outten is heading to Denver with Hackett to be his offensive coordinator.
– Offensive line coach Adams Stenavich has been promoted to Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator.
– In addition to Jason Vrable’s responsibilities as wide receivers coach, he will also be the passing game coordinator moving forward, a title that was previously held by Getsy.
– Matt LaFleur would fire special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton.
– Assistant offensive line coach Luke Butkus was promoted to offensive line coach.
– Connor Lewis was named the assistant quarterbacks coach.
– Ryan Mahaffey is now the assistant offensive line coach, replacing Butkus.
Did you catch all of that? So now that the dust has settled, at least for the time being, all of this movement leaves the Green Bay Packers with three coaching vacancies left to fill–quarterbacks coach, tight ends coach, and special teams coordinator.
When a team is looking to fill these roles outside of the organization, it’s always difficult to pinpoint who they exactly might be targeting. When it comes to the quarterbacks coach, in addition to those responsibilities, Getsy was also in charge of putting together the third-down packages each week for the offense. Not to mention that whoever Green Bay does decide to hire, I imagine Aaron Rodgers is going to have a say in that if he intends to return.
Outten, along with running backs coach Ben Sirmans, was in charge of the short-yardage and goal-line situations last season, along with working with the tight ends. Under Outten, Robert Tonyan had an incredibly efficient 2020 season, catching 88.1 percent of his 59 targets at 11.3 yards per catch and with 11 touchdowns.
One possible replacement for Outten that Peter Bukowski of The Leap mentioned was Jon Embree, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers. With the Niners, Embree held the same title of tight ends coach and coming from Kyle Shanahan’s offense, there is certainly some overlap with what LaFleur runs. On top of that, Tonyan is good friends with George Kittle, and Embree was also Marcedes Lewis’ coach at UCLA.
When it comes to the special teams coordinator, as I outlined in a recent article, the Green Bay Packers have not been a good special teams unit for nearly a decade. In order for them to turn it around, it is likely going to take an organizational shift in how they view the special teams unit, in addition to bringing in a new coordinator–this means utilizing starters, bringing in players with real special teams experience, and simply spending more time on it in practice and over the summer.
A few noteworthy names to keep your eyes on that Tom Silverstein mentioned include Rick Bisaccia, Ryan Fickman, Danny Crossman, and Frank Ross.
In regards to a timeline for when these vacancies could be filled, well, LaFleur and the remaining members of the Green Bay Packers coaching staff will be coaching the NFC Pro Bowl team in Las Vegas this weekend. So when it comes to filling any of these roles, that might not be something that happens in the coming days.